The Section III high school boys and girls basketball tournaments move to the semifinal stage this weekend at Onondaga Community College. All five classifications in Section III for boys and girls will conduct their semifinal contests between two gymnasiums that are connected - the SRC Arena and the Allyn Hall Gymnasium.

The action starts Friday, continues through Sunday. The winners advance to the Section III championship games at the Carrier Dome.

Nottingham vs. Cicero-North Syracuse girls on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. (Allyn Hall). Arguably the two best girls teams in Class AA find themselves in the same bracket. Lady Bulldogs handed Northstars a late-season 56-44 loss. It was the first league setback for C-NS in five years.

Henninger vs. Utica Proctor boys on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. (SRC Arena). If there's a Section III Class AA championship stake, it almost always goes through either Henninger or Proctor.

Upset alert

Westhill girls: The Warriors survived a scare against Bishop Grimes in the quarterfinals. Now they face a confident team coming off the tournament's biggest upset, though Westhill defeated APW 49-38 earlier this month.

Fayetteville-Manlius boys: The Hornets stumbled here a year ago; now they face an unpredictable team from Cicero-North Syracuse. The Northstars have enough shooters and a difference maker in Connor Evans to spring an upset. If the C-NS team that beat Henninger by 15 shows up, watch out.

Saturday night special

The Class AA boys games overlap with the Syracuse-Duke game. Not to worry. A tournament sponsor company called CNY & Syracuse Funflicks is setting up what tournament director Scott Sugar says is "a huge, inflatable screen and plans to show games all day long, most importantly, the SU game."

Star power

For the girls, Emily Durr of Utica Notre Dame is the reigning All-CNY Player of the year. Others to watch include Nottingham's Chyanna Canada, dynamic guard McKayla Roberts of C-NS, and the Westhill duo of Anna Ross and Sam Peebles. In Class D, Domenique Talerico of New York Mills just joined the 1,000-point club and is averaging 20.3 points a contest.

For the boys, Jamesville-DeWitt's Jafar Kinsey has helped resurrect the Red Rams into a legitimate Class A power again. Westhill's Jordan Roland is a strong candidate, perhaps front-runner, for All-CNY Player of the Year. Bishop Ludden is led by Dan Kaigler. Henninger's Romero Collier and Fayetteville-Manlius's Jake Wittig are dazzling point guards. And when it comes to scoring, F-M's John Schurman is a scoring machine.

Dome bound

Nothing in basketball is ever a lock. But, there are a handful of teams which should get through their semifinal games and reach the championship games at the Dome including Bishop Ludden boys, Jamesville-DeWitt boys, Notre Dame girls, West Genesee , New York Mills boys and Jamesville-DeWitt girls.

Tickets

Semifinal admission prices are $5. On Saturday and Sunday, admission will allow you to go back and forth between games in both arenas.